JOHN DOE
John Doe Videos
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John Doe Interview (full length) John Doe from the band X on punk rock and his solo album "A Year In The Wilderness." |
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John Doe: Golden State (full length) John Doe in the studio performing "The Golden State" with Cindy Wasserman. |
John Doe: Punk Rock Legend
A band or song can often transport us back to a specific time in our lives. For punk rock fans, a few power chords is all that’s needed to initiate the quantum leap back into Mohawks, black fingernail polish and youthful rage. That’s because the power chords, which most punk bands could never play past, were the essence what punk was all about. Punk wasn’t about jammin’ out solos, it was about ripping your heart out and shoving it down the throat of conformity. That attitude was inherent in the lyrics, fashion and music and it inspired many of our journeys through self discovery, self expression and rebellion. The Ramones, the Dead Kennedys and X were among the leaders in the movement. They were not about pomp, lightshows or the salacious groupies which seemed to collect like barnacles on the mainstream goliath of seventies arena rock. Instead they were refreshingly honest, stripped down and most of all--pissed. They were “sick of the usual bullshit,” and let it be known with each relentless chord and mosh pit slam.
It’s no surprise that in the late seventies and early eighties major labels found punk rock threatening and didn’t want to invest in the raucous rebellion. When the present-day “grandfathers” of punk were emerging in the United States it was difficult to find the music anywhere – radio play was non-existent, grabbing an album at the mall was not happening. Only those in the know, knew. These days we can honestly bestow the early punks with the same stamp-of-cool as the early beatniks and hippies. They were the real deal, not the “posers” that would inevitably follow suit once word hit the mainstream.
Today hearing punk is common-place. So common that it sometimes calls into question the validity of a band actually being punk. Do they embody the punk rock spirit? Are they rebelling? Or is this a pop band in disguise just out to sell records?
Infinitely cool, never a poser, John Doe the frontman for LA punk band, X, reached beyond the typical punk band’s repertoire. Doe delved lyrically and musically, transcending shock value and angst, he and co-songwriter Exene Cervenka revealed personal experiences their fans could relate to. Known for poetic and, at times, political lyrics, X also really knew how to play their instruments and would exhaust their moshing audience at live shows. X is a significant part of where the punk revolution began and John Doe is where it continues, quietly on the outskirts, even today. X hasn’t recorded for years but still tours occasionally. The members of X stayed true to the DIY spirit and for it they have won lifelong respect and admiration from their fans.
Doe’s new solo album, “A Year In The Wilderness,” is a handful of haunting vignettes that give entree to emotional complexity, the celebration of life and the tendrils of a psychopath. “The Golden State,” a duet with Kathleen Edwards, espouses the glory and inescapable heart pangs that come with love; Edwards joins Doe in trading amorous paradoxes, “you are something in my eye and I am the shiver down your spine.” Reminiscent of Johnny Cash, Doe tells the story of “The Meanest Man In The World,” spinning a yarn that takes the listener inside the warm world of a cold-hearted man. Doe’s poetic sensibility lives in the songs of “A Year In The Wilderness,” and while the rebellious tone of his earlier music is dampened, this album has the legs of a punk rock legend.
Doe has also played with The Knitters and has over 50 credits to his acting career. Doe told Sundance Channel Online that he prefers to act in independent films as there tends to be “less bullshit.” Recently, Doe played a German nudist in Claudia Carey’s THE SANDPIPER and plays Sissy Tailor in Chris Lusvardi’s film, MAN MADE, currently in post production.
Doe is also captured in W.T. Morgan’s documentary, X: THE UNHEARD MUSIC. Morgan followed X for five years in the early eighties. Morgan’s film, released in 1986 and screened at Sundance Film Festival’s 2007 Collection, pinpoints an era where musicians cared more about the music and their message than fluffing up and getting signed. X: THE UNHEARD MUSIC takes the audience back to the eighties, when music was rebellion.
It’s no surprise that in the late seventies and early eighties major labels found punk rock threatening and didn’t want to invest in the raucous rebellion. When the present-day “grandfathers” of punk were emerging in the United States it was difficult to find the music anywhere – radio play was non-existent, grabbing an album at the mall was not happening. Only those in the know, knew. These days we can honestly bestow the early punks with the same stamp-of-cool as the early beatniks and hippies. They were the real deal, not the “posers” that would inevitably follow suit once word hit the mainstream.
Today hearing punk is common-place. So common that it sometimes calls into question the validity of a band actually being punk. Do they embody the punk rock spirit? Are they rebelling? Or is this a pop band in disguise just out to sell records?
Infinitely cool, never a poser, John Doe the frontman for LA punk band, X, reached beyond the typical punk band’s repertoire. Doe delved lyrically and musically, transcending shock value and angst, he and co-songwriter Exene Cervenka revealed personal experiences their fans could relate to. Known for poetic and, at times, political lyrics, X also really knew how to play their instruments and would exhaust their moshing audience at live shows. X is a significant part of where the punk revolution began and John Doe is where it continues, quietly on the outskirts, even today. X hasn’t recorded for years but still tours occasionally. The members of X stayed true to the DIY spirit and for it they have won lifelong respect and admiration from their fans.
Doe’s new solo album, “A Year In The Wilderness,” is a handful of haunting vignettes that give entree to emotional complexity, the celebration of life and the tendrils of a psychopath. “The Golden State,” a duet with Kathleen Edwards, espouses the glory and inescapable heart pangs that come with love; Edwards joins Doe in trading amorous paradoxes, “you are something in my eye and I am the shiver down your spine.” Reminiscent of Johnny Cash, Doe tells the story of “The Meanest Man In The World,” spinning a yarn that takes the listener inside the warm world of a cold-hearted man. Doe’s poetic sensibility lives in the songs of “A Year In The Wilderness,” and while the rebellious tone of his earlier music is dampened, this album has the legs of a punk rock legend.
Doe has also played with The Knitters and has over 50 credits to his acting career. Doe told Sundance Channel Online that he prefers to act in independent films as there tends to be “less bullshit.” Recently, Doe played a German nudist in Claudia Carey’s THE SANDPIPER and plays Sissy Tailor in Chris Lusvardi’s film, MAN MADE, currently in post production.
Doe is also captured in W.T. Morgan’s documentary, X: THE UNHEARD MUSIC. Morgan followed X for five years in the early eighties. Morgan’s film, released in 1986 and screened at Sundance Film Festival’s 2007 Collection, pinpoints an era where musicians cared more about the music and their message than fluffing up and getting signed. X: THE UNHEARD MUSIC takes the audience back to the eighties, when music was rebellion.
FOCUS
John Doe: Punk Rock Legend. It doesn't get any more indie than that. The spotlight turns to John Doe, vocalist and bassist in the band X and present-day soloist. As a musician, Doe writes from the heart and exposes without exploiting. As an actor, Doe prefers to be in independent films. A forefather of punk, Doe forged the way for rebellion through music. He never changed his tunes for mass consumption and stays true to the DIY spirit.
John Doe: Punk Rock Legend. It doesn't get any more indie than that. The spotlight turns to John Doe, vocalist and bassist in the band X and present-day soloist. As a musician, Doe writes from the heart and exposes without exploiting. As an actor, Doe prefers to be in independent films. A forefather of punk, Doe forged the way for rebellion through music. He never changed his tunes for mass consumption and stays true to the DIY spirit.
BIOBassist and vocalist of the punk band X, vocalist for The Knitters and a thriving solo artist, John Doe has been winning fans with his tenor voice and Bukowski-like lyrics for over two decades.
In his own words John Doe introduces his album "A Year In The Wilderness"...
Teetering on the brink of making a new record is a bit like finding yourself at the top of a clattering roller coaster. Just as it slows down, your thoughts alternate between “What in the fuck was I thinking when I got on this thing” and “YEEEEEHAAAW!”. Outside of the creative arena that’s not something I subject myself to voluntarily.
This record was the first one we set in motion before all the songs were written. We actually had a recording and release date set w/ two songs short of a six pack. Pretty fuckin’ scary.
As luck would have it though, my benefactor, colleague and compadre, DAVE WAY was between projects and twelve days were available just before Xmas. (Hmmm “the 12 days of . . .?” Nevermind.) Recording in winter always hits you right in the guts, ‘cause it usually rains and makes you want to close down and pull inside. With no clear direction, two songs short, three drummers who bailed at the last minute and having the last record called“His Best Solo Record to Date” the pressure and stakes seemed uncomfortably high. Fuck it. (Everybody sing: “3 drummers bailing, 2 songs a-missing and a deadline looming ahead.”)
Considering the ominous circumstances Dave and I figured that we’d call the best players we had worked w/ in the past, plus a few guest stars/friends. DAVE CARPENTER and JAMIE MUHOBERAC were first with BRYAN HEAD just after. The core was there and remarkably all our guests said “yes”. In order of stellar appearance, they are DAVE ALVIN, JILL SOBULE, KATHLEEN EDWARDS, DAN AUERBACH (from THE BLACK KEYS), GREG LEISZ and AIMEE MANN.
By the middle of January the whole damn thing was mixed. Christ! It all happened too fast. A scary and wondrous process where a blast of intuition and force that takes only moments to realize can last forever and carry consequences you never imagined. Next time we vowed to get more time and money to make it last for at least a month.
Sometimes it sounded like a Replacements, then a Velvet Underground record, then Blonde On Blonde . . . twelve-strings, six-strings, electrics, upright bass, big kick drums, pianos, organs, slides, floating & screaming voices. These may be the darkest moments recounted but you have to look inside to hear that, and in there is some of what happens during "A Year in the Wilderness."
-JOHN DOE, 2007